1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a management system for managing a distributed system of Internet computers connected via the Internet or similar Wide Area Network. More particularly, the present invention relates to apportioning tasks among personal computers connected via wide area networks. The invention is particularly relevant to assigning tasks to personal computers at the time of day in which the personal computers would otherwise be idle.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, wide area networks ("WAN") have become an important part of the day to day lives of many computer owners. Every day millions of users connect to the most well known WAN, the Internet. Nearly every personal computer ("PC") user having a modem and a telephone line can access the Internet for little cost through commercial companies that provide a gateway to the Internet. Personal computers operate in a subscriber relationship with a central computer provided by the company providing the gateway to the Internet wherein the personal computer receives data and computing services from the central computer in exchange for paying a charge. Internet services include E-Mail, database access, and news groups. The Internet also acts as a service medium for many companies trying to market products.
Many of the personal computers which are connected to WANs are high powered personal computers which may contain microprocessors, such as the Intel Pentium.RTM. or PentiumPro.TM. microprocessor. These personal computers may also include RAM memory, a display unit, long-term storage such as a hard disk drive, and other proprietary processors such as video graphic cards and math co-processors. These independent, stand-alone computers are idle for a significant portion of the day. For example, a personal computer owned at home may be idle or even off while the owner is away at work. The computer may also be idle at night while the owner is asleep. Personal computers at the office may only be utilized from 9 A.M. in the morning till 5 P.M. in the evening. At any particular time, peak usage in one part of the world can be offset by low usage in a different part of the world. For example, periods of high computer usage in New York City may be night time in Tokyo when idle personal computers are readily available. It would be advantageous to find a way of utilizing this wasted computer resource.
As WANs, such as the Internet, become more popular, the demand on the computational power of the computers which provide WAN services keeps increasing. Computers, including servers, must perform many tasks including the providing and generating of WEB pages, compressing Moving Pictures Expert Group ("MPEG") and Joint Photographic Expert Group ("JPEG") images, and serving up WEB pages. These tasks and the exploding number of users place increasing demands on the computers at WAN service providers and Internet WEB sites. Service providers, such as American On-Line.TM. ("AOL") and Compuserve increasingly must buy more powerful computers to service the additional members and the new content that is constantly being updated. These service providers could save on computer costs if some of the computational requirements of their system could be serviced by personal computers owned by private individuals and other independent entities who subscribe to the Internet provider services.
Any system which attempts to use PCs coupled to the Internet service providers ("ISP") to satisfy computational requirements must be dynamic and easily modifiable. Each computer connecting to the ISP may be independently owned and individual owners may frequently change their personal computer system characteristics. Furthermore, subscribers with PCs are frequently being added to the ISP network, while other owners are dropping the ISP service. AOL, for example, has a "churn" rate of thousands of computers adding and dropping the service every year.
Thus, there exists a need for a dynamic, accommodating system capable of assigning tasks required by Internet Service Provider to personal computers and coordinating transmission and completion of those tasks.